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Nature is a serious lady. Â This is a bummer of a story, but it shows the power that Mother Nature harnesses with respect to light, in this case in the form of lightning.

Last Friday (26 August 2016) in a large thunderstorm system in a private game reserve in Norway, an estimated 323 reindeer were killed in a lightning strike. Â From WaPo reporter Karin Brulliard on the story:

The 323 reindeer were killed by lightning Friday, the agency said, in a rare natural massacre that counts as the deadliest lightning strike on record. It took place in a private hunting area of the Hardangervidda mountain plateau in central southern Norway, a verdant and frigid tableau of streams, rocks and glaciers that is home toÂ one of the largest reindeer herds in Europe.

OfficialsÂ told Agence France-PresseÂ that a gamekeeper stumbled upon the eerie scene Friday and that 70 young reindeer were among the victims. Five animals had to be euthanized, said officials, who told the news service that they were not sure what they would do with the bodies. The gamekeeper told NTB, the Norwegian news service, that samples of the carcasses were sent to a state veterinary institute, which would officially determine the cause of death.
â€œWeâ€™ve never seen anything like this on this scale,â€ agency official Kjartan Knutsen said.â€ There were very strong storms in the area on Friday. The animals stay close together in bad weather and these ones were hit by lightning.â€

There is some flyover video of the scene — it’s not gruesome or bloody or anything, but please know it’s ghastly:

Nature, you are a cruel mistress sometimes, huh.

Angela Chen, science writer for The Verge, et al, interviewed John Jensenius at NOAA to talk about the phenomenon of mass animal deaths attributed to lightning strikes like this. Â Angela, this was a great read! Â Y’all need to check out her writing!

Angela Chen:
First, how likely is it that it really was lightning that killed those reindeer? Is there a way to know without having seen the strike directly?

John Jensenius:
It isnâ€™t that unusual to see farm animals, or wild animals such as reindeer, being killed by lightning. Of course, 323 is a rather large number, though weâ€™ve seen reports of 654 sheep being killed in one spot.

Animals do tend to group together in storms and huddle under trees. If lightning strikes the tree or somewhere nearby, the entire group can be killed. We donâ€™t know how common this is because itâ€™s hard to track, though usually itâ€™s herds of 10 or 20 animals that get killed.

In the case where the animals are huddling under a tree, oftentimes youâ€™ll see some visible signs on the tree, though you may not see any visible signs on the animals themselves. In this case, itâ€™s hard to know where lightning struck based on the pictures, but there may be an animal among the dead animals that has visible signs, like a bit of charring on the skin.

Angela Chen:How did lightning kill all of those reindeer at once? Did they need to be touching for this to happen?

John Jensenius:
When animals or people are in groups, most are being killed by the ground current. First, thereâ€™s a direct strike â€” this is what most people think of when they think of lightning â€” that hits the tree or maybe the ground nearby. The energy then spreads along the ground surface, and if youâ€™re anywhere near that lightning strike, you absorb it and get shocked.

Lightning goes up one leg and down another. Animals are more vulnerable because their legs are spread out more, so the ground currents travel more easily in their bodies. It doesnâ€™t matter if theyâ€™re touching, or exactly how close they are, it matters that they were all in the area hit by lightning. Ground currents are the thing thatâ€™s responsible for the most lightning deaths and injuries in both people and animals.

Angela Chen:
How far can the ground current travel? When are you safe?

John Jensenius:Thatâ€™s one question weâ€™re often asked, and itâ€™s a difficult question because it depends on a lot of factors, including the strength of the actual lightning strike.

In this case, the animals seem to be in an area that was 50 to 80 feet in diameter and on a hillside, which gives you some idea that lightning can travel a good distance and still be deadly. Lightning doesnâ€™t always travel deep into the ground.

Angela Chen:What exactly is it about lightning that kills these animals?

John Jensenius:
Itâ€™s the electricity going into your body. It passes through the nervous system and your nerves, and the deadly part is that it stops the heart. In the case of people, many can be revived with CPR if tended to immediately but with reindeer, it just would have stopped their hearts.

Angela Chen:What are some other types of lightning besides the ground current and the direct strike?

John Jensenius:There’s the side flash. Thatâ€™s when an animal or person is standing close to the tree, the tree is hit by lightning, and then the lightning jumps from tree to person or animal. The side flash usually kills one or a small number of animals, not large ones like with ground currents.

Thereâ€™s also something called a “wall conduction,” which is when something plugged into the wall is a direct connection to a wire outside. So if the wire outside is struck, the lightning will follow the wire and you can be shocked.

Angela Chen:
Are lightning fatalities, in people at least, going down?

John Jensenius:Yes, theyâ€™ve been dropping over recent years. If you go back over the 1930s and 1940s, we had about 300 to 400 people killed every year in the United States. Nowadays, our 10-year average is about 31 people per year. This year so far weâ€™ve had 32.

Oh, friends and neighbors, it’s been a crazy last week here on JimOnLight!

Just to catch you up:Â I started a new job last week, Laura and Roxy and I have settled into our new apartment, and we’re 15 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean.Â That alone is going to provide us some serious peace and tranquility, at least until Hurricane Season!Â Hopefully the Hurricane Center will add my suggestions to the naming conventions list…Â Hurricane Ru Paul should be making his or her way up the coast any day now!

Let’s recap on last week’s posts – we found out that L&N Productions in North Carolina had some photo evidence on their website of their crappy rigging that nearly took out some of the performers from the band The Afters, followed by some unbelievable images of the stage collapse L&N was involved in…Â the promoter called it “weather related,” but as John Huntington from the awesome blog Control Geek noted, that’s a bunch of BS.Â And, AND, this weekend I missed my death by about 15 seconds, as a couple of thugs who stole a car wiped out on our street (which is a 25 mph zone) going about 70.Â Check them all out below!

So, it’s been a little while since we’ve had to see the images of the Indiana State Fair collapse during the Sugarland show on the grandstand. I want everybody to see some of these images again, I think the only way to freshly get it in your head is to see what happened.

First this happened:

Then all of these people did this:

I just read two articles on the collapse and the aftermath. One of them said that the families of the fallen concertgoers were each given $35,000 for their dead loved one and that the Indiana State Fair attendance is lagging due to the “incident,” the other article said that the IATSE Local in Indianapolis, IATSE #30, is experiencing some grind from the lawyers from the state of Indiana. From an article at the Indy Star:

Lawyers for the state and a stagehands union are working on an agreement to turn over documents relating to the Indiana State Fair stage collapse.

A lawyer for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 30 said Wednesday that he was willing to hand over apprenticeship training files on stagehands who were working at the fair when the accident occurred Aug. 13.

Local 30 stopped the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration from conducting a search of its Indianapolis union hall last week. The agency had obtained a search warrant requesting employment disciplinary records, apprenticeship training records, certificates, licenses and other documents.

“We are trying to resolve this in a nonadversarial way,” said William Groth, the lawyer for the union. “We want to cooperate. We just think a search warrant is the nuclear option.”

Marion Superior Court Judge David Shaheed on Wednesday extended a stay of the search warrant until Nov. 3.

Chetrice Mosely, a spokeswoman for the Department of Labor, said “both sides have agreed to enter a discussion as to how to resolve this. Our goal is to get the records so we can do a comprehensive investigation,” she said.

This is a real bummer. I don’t really have much to comment on about this, I just wanted to share these two stories, as this is still fresh in the hearts of the families and IA brothers and sisters still mourning the loss of their cherished.

INDIANAPOLIS â€” Two high-level investigations into the fatal Indiana State Fair stage collapse may not be released in time to help prepare for next yearâ€™s fair, the fairâ€™s director said Tuesday.

Indiana State Fair Executive Director Cindy Hoye told a group of lawmakers that information from separate investigations into the stage collapse that killed seven people may not be complete until mid-April.

The state has typically done much of its work for its three-week-long summer fair by that point.

The state hired international engineers Thornton Tomasetti to investigate the wreckage of the stage.

The state also hired Witt Associates to assess the fairâ€™s emergency preparations. Witt has completed much of its work but will wait until the engineers complete their investigation before issuing a report together with them, Hoye said.

â€œWeâ€™re progressing right now with looking at our emergency preparations, weâ€™re doing a lot of front end work,â€ Hoye said after the meeting. â€œI think that report will clarify and put a snapshot on some of the things we need to do.â€

There is more to this article of course, here – what we should be taking away from this whole thing is the amazing amount ofÂ bureaucraticÂ inflighting and policy clouding will be involved with the results of the collapse by that time. Â Let’sd hope not much – but we can all watch the news and determine how good this situation is going to come about once it becomes filled with politics. Â I sincerely hope for the sake of the hearts of those involved that this time is the one exception.

FOLKS: Â PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES or CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN THERE, I’M GONNA UPDATE EVERYTHING IN SEQUENCE AS I GET IT. Â PLEASE SHARE WITH EVERYONE, WE NEED A WORLDWIDE OUTPOURING FOR THIS.Â

Hang on, folks, we’ve got another one. Â News is coming in from all over the place about the PukkelPop Festival in Belgium – weather got bad, a roof collapsed, three people killed, and at last check another 70 plus injured. Â This is a popular festival, and people are dead because of a truss roof collapse. Â I don’t have much information on this (nobody does, only what has been coming in from the web), so I will post what I have and I’ll update when I get it. Â The band onstage was the Chicago band The Smith Westerns. Â They’re apparently all doing ok.

Videos – there are lots coming in:

So far, it’s looking like another wicked storm hitting a structure, but other than that, news is not quite all filtered out yet. Three more dead as of now.

UPDATE THURSDAY 8:24PM CST:
We are seeing news of the aftermath on Belgian TV and from new AP reports. From the latest news at Herald Sun:

UPDATE 10am: AT least three people are dead and dozens have been injured after a violent storm struck an outdoor rock festival in northern Belgium overnight, collapsing two stages and sending shocked fans running for cover.

One of the stages fell on concert-goers at the annual Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt, AFP reported, with the destructive weather uprooting trees and causing a tower with technical equipment to fall onto trucks.

One report suggested four people had been killed, while other news agencies put the death toll at three. The number of injured was reported at anywhere between 40 and 70 people.

More than 65,000 fans had reportedly flocked to the site for the popular music festival, where Jared Leto, actor-turned-frontman of 30 Seconds to Mars, was due to headline the program with his band last night, along with the Foo Fighters.

Latest official news here in Belgium:
4 dead, 35 severely injured, 100+ injured.
If you can believe it or not; they are planning on continueing with the festival the coming 3 days! The organisation will continue with the festival in a slimmed down version, meaning just 2 or 3 stages will be having artist performing instead of the 8 stages.

UPDATE THURSDAY 7:06PM CST:

UPDATE THURSDAY 6:50PM CST:
Reports of just crazy destruction at the Pukkelpop site, and a lot of confusion.

Belgian network VTM is reporting a fourth person killed in the disaster.

UPDATE THURSDAY 6:13PM CST:

I just got word from Joy at the sister festival of PukkelPop – please see below:

“I know something more on the accident: 3 dead, 71 injured, of which 11 are severely injured. People are left in total confusion, they are not clearly briefed with information, official announcements on the accident have not been made after 3 hours. One person was killed with the collapse of a truss, another one was killed on the camping and another person has not been told of. Telephone network is out in the whole area. There’s no place all visitors can go to, they are taken care of by local people that provide shelter, food, drinks, dry clothes and showers. There was bad weather with hail and rain and strong winds that blew two to three tents and PA towers an d other tower structures collapsed. Trees fell down on site. further reports are still to be made. Just terrible what happened.”

I also just got this video in from @TMettes on Twitter of the roof coming down – clear footage, pretty unbelievable, like each one seems to be after the next.

However, have you read the news in the AP wire (thanks Fox) about how now they’re looking at the collapse? Â This has become a media salvage operation for Governor Daniels and his crew. Â Sorry folks, this really upsets me, especially the language in his statement about the collapse. Â From the report at the AP wire:

“Our first job is to get back in the business of living, get back in the business of the state fair and back in the business of caring for each other,” he said.

Since we’ve already arrived at the blame game part of the disaster with the Governor and the State Fair promoter people, I think we have two fingers that can be pointed. Â Sorry, Governor Daniels,Â you get finger #1.

You know what, I understand that you’re just trying to salvage face at this point. Â What you need to understand, sir, is that our industry, the Entertainment Industries as a whole, doesn’t do too well when these kinds of events happen, especially when they could have been avoided. Â Nate Byrd’s donation of his life for the sake of a State Fair show is a donation that you should beÂ clamoringÂ to give back with every second of future shows you ever have a hand in producing. Â I want you to know that, everyone in the industry wants you to know that, and I hope that you never forget that a show is LESS important than what you observed on Saturday.

Let’s take a look at some chain of command stuff here before we start blaming stagehands and riggers. Â I think that is very, very important. Â So, the chain of command broke down WAY before the time to blame riggers and stagehands. Â Now is there stuff we don’t know? Â Sure. Â Everything is speculation at this point. Â But five people are dead. Â It’s time to get some answers now.

Promoters. Â It’s your fault for this happening. Â Since you didn’t call this show at least on hold when that weather is visible, the blood is on your hands. Â What you’re going to find is that there are many people under you who were probably suggesting that the show be held, at least until the weather passed. Â Another show was cancelled just a bit away from your site, and those promoters gave their audience at least 30 minutes to get there before any weather reached the site. Â Did that not surprise you?

State Safety Officer. Â What was it that you were doing that was more important that this? Â You can get weather reports and warnings for free via text message if you happen to have an old phone.

Public Safety Officer. Â What were you doing when the weather was an hour away? Â Your responsibility was public safety. Â Five are dead. Â I’d say you failed.

Venue Manager. Â You should have had your weather reports right up in your face, ready to tell the promoters that you were going to stop the show, and that was that. Â Getting the PA down, getting the roof down, and getting the hands off of the deck are all things you should have been reporting to both the promoter(s) and the crew chief to execute.

IATSE Steward onsite. Â This one hurts me, but it’s true – what the IA stewards say onsite goes for all IA hands. Â People should have been out of that rig when that weather was coming.

Promoters are not Gods, everybody. Â They can be told no. Â I mean, what’s the worst they’re gonna do, fire you? Â My guess is that there are a lot of people who wish they would have gotten fired right now.

For the record, the Entertainment Industries are all about protecting our fans from the art they desire while we execute it like only we know how. Â But we’re professionals about it, and we know when you need to pull the PA down, drop the roof and lighting, and just deal with angry fans for the sake of the fans until the storm passes. Â Sugarland still would have rocked the heck out of it.

Sorry folks, but there are some issues with this AP article that have to be addressed. Â I’m gonna go through these really quickly here, but the world needs to know how pissed our industry is with this mess.

As the fair reopened Monday, investigators and the families of the dead and injured were still seeking answers to hard questions: Was the structure safe? Why were the thousands of fans not evacuated? Could anything have been done to prevent the tragedy?

State fair officials have not said whether the stage and rigging were inspected prior to Saturday’s show. Fair spokesman Andy Klotz said initially that the state fire marshal’s office was responsible for inspections, but he backtracked Monday, saying he wasn’t sure whose job it is.

A spokesman for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security said neither the fire marshal nor Homeland Security officials conduct inspections. And the city does not have the authority to inspect items on state property.

“We do have our own requirements within the city for temporary structures, and we do have our own permitting requirements,” said Kate Johnson, spokeswoman for the Indianapolis Department of Code Enforcement. “But in this situation, we don’t have that authority because it’s state-owned property.”

As they investigate, inspectors for the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be looking at the weather and any potential structural or design flaws in the stage, among other things, experts said.

Another emerging issue is whether fair organizers responded quickly enough to forecasts of an approaching storm, especially since a different concert nearby was canceled because of the weather.

People, Mother Nature is gonna trash anything when hurricane strength winds blow through somewhere, but what the media needs to understand is that the reason this happened is a combination of things that we will probably soon discover in the follow-up. Â Biggest issue right now? Â WHY WAS THE RIG STILL IN THE AIR WHEN THAT STORM WAS COMING?! Â Did you see that big blue tarp in the video flap around in the wind like a sail? Â My professional guess would be that it was among the reasons for the sideways fall of that structure, the sail catching wind and pulling the rig out of balance. Â But let me just say this out loud again so that all government agencies and OSHA and all of the people who will still be blaming our industry for this mess for a long time coming: Â WHY WAS THE RIG STILL IN THE AIR WHEN THAT STORM WAS COMING?!

Here’s finger #2 – at the promoters for this event.

I am making a public call to the media and to the world – WHY DO WE NOT HAVE AN ANSWER FROM A PROMOTER ABOUT THESE THREE QUESTIONS?

WHY was the RIG STILL IN THE AIR when the storm was coming?WHERE were the safety organizations’ representatives when this weather was coming through?WHY was the RIG STILL IN THE AIR when the storm was coming?Â

Was it worth the deaths? Â Was it worth the mess? Â Here’s the REAL kicker for your sleepy time – you DO REALIZE that Sugarland would have still played a great show if you would have taken the time to lower the PA, drop the roof, just for the time the storm was coming, and then rocked the crap out of your fairgoers’ faces. Â Nate Byrd would also be running spots still, too.

We need to be concerned about a few things here:

Does it concern anyone else that the very same people who keep saying “oh hey, I don’t know WHO’S job roof safety is” are the very same people who are going to be investigating the disaster? Â What I’m gonna be looking for is for OSHA and the Indiana people involved with this to be reaching out to parties in the Entertainment Industry to help them with the engineering and consulting.

We need to be concerned that there is already backtracking in public statements. Â This is going to get worse. Â Governor Daniels’ constant “let’s be moving on and healing from this tragedy” makes me even more suspect. Â Sorry Gov’nah, this is more than just votes and political popularity. Â Our industry is on the carpet for the lack of due diligence that the fair promoters exhibited in NOT GETTING THAT ROOF IN when the storm was coming. Â We will NOT let you hang us out to dry on this one, especially when you chose to exhibit such negligence in this situation.

Kate Johnson’s statement:
“We do have our own requirements within the city for temporary structures, and we do have our own permitting requirements,” said Kate Johnson, spokeswoman for the Indianapolis Department of Code Enforcement. “But in this situation, we don’t have that authority because it’s state-owned property.” Â Um, no. Â More pass-off. Â We can expect a lot more of this kind of garbage, I’m afraid.

Was the structure safe? Â We’ll find out the answer to that soon, to be sure. Â What is obviously a big issue is WHY THE RIG WAS A FULL HEIGHT IN THE ONCOMING STORM. Â It’s Indiana, people, not Denver, where the mountains can hide rain.

I’m so disgusted with the just monster fountain of crap that’s engrossing this horrific incident. Â It’s up to US to make sure we can filter the BS. Â Anything and everything we can do is what is prescribed now. Â If we leave this in the hands of the people who are obviously doing such a great job of managing the fair now, I fear it’s only going to be a matter of time before I’m writing about the next bunch of music lovers who were killed in a roof collapse.

Governor Daniels, this was not a freak accident. Â This was negligence. Â Promoters, I’m gonna be waiting for your answer. Â We all are.

Sorry folks, this video is the harsh reality of what happened in Indiana on Saturday at the Sugarland concert. Â Just be forewarned, it shows the rig collapsing onto people, and it’s pretty real. Â What cannot, cannot, cannot be overlooked at the end of the video is the bunch of hands that came running to lift that structure, regardless of whether or not they could.

WARNING: Â This is a pretty graphic video of the Indiana State Fair stage collapse:

That video made me cry, I am dead serious. Â We lostÂ a member of the local crew of IATSE Local 30 in this disaster, too. Â Brother, rest in peace. Â Nathan Byrd, also apparently known as “Save The Show” Nathan, leaves behind two teenagers. Â Nathan was in the truss at the time of its collapse. Â The gear belongs to Mid-America Sound out of Greenfield, Indiana. Â If you’ve done corporate or concerts in the midwest, chances are you’ve probably run into their gear, that’re a widely used production company.

Four people and one stagehandÂ are dead and at least forty others are injured because something our industry put together to have a show collapsed in weather. Â What happened? Â Is this weather? Â Were all of the proper safety features installed properly and working? Â I’m not placing blame, that’s not even remotely the point right now. Â The point is that this has happened, it seems to be happening a fair amount lately in roughly this size of production, and now what are we going to do to mitigate this from happening? Â I have heard more than one person after these events say something along the lines of “it happens, thank God no one was hurt” or “it happens, these people were just unlucky.”

Bullsh*t. Â

Also, Governor Daniels, STOP SAYING that this was “a freakish accident,” because that is a lie. Â This could have been avoided if your promoters would have had a bit more importance placed on concertgoer safety. Â This should have been shut down until the weather passed, or shut down altogether WAY in advance of the ten minutes you people have been reporting as the only warning you had for this wind event. Â Stop diluting this by calling it a freakish accident. Â It’s further from the truth than anything else you’ve said about the collapse.

I had to get ahold of my go-to safety guru, Erich Friend from Teqniqal Systems for this one, I’m no safety expert. Â Erich and I work together here and there on projects, but more than anything, Erich is a brilliant safety guy who writes for TheatreFace, has a safety and consulting firm, and writes the Theatre Safety Blog.

JimOnLight.com: Erich, you’re the best safety consultant I know, can you make some sense of this mess? What the hell is going on that this keeps happening? Indiana State Fair’s roof structure, the collapse in July at the Cheap Trick show in Toronto, Peter Frampton in Germany last year, what on earth is going on?

Erich Friend: Jim, you just touched the surface on the number of well documented events like this that have happened. In fact, this is the third one in three weeks. This most recent event is the most tragic in terms of body count – 45 injured, five dead â€“ and is certainly one of the most visible due to the press coverage.

JOL: I think there are fingers to point here, but right now what is most important is to be solving the freaking problem. People died on Saturday. People died because an entertainment structure collapsed. Where do we go here? How do we stop this? Is ETCP the answer, or is there something else that we should be trying to implement or change?

EF: For starterâ€™s, there will be a serious investigation of this by the Indiana State Police and OSHA to assess this event. Some of this will be a look at the structural integrity of the concert rig, some will look at the weather conditions, and another part will be to look at the venuesâ€™ management of the crowd and crew in clearing the area around the structure. Although the attachments for these structure may have been executed by ETCP certified riggers, this really only indicates that the connections may have been performed properly and that sufficient safety cables may have been attached to keep the lighting and sound equipment from separating from the canopy structure. The use of ETCP certified riggers may not have a large bearing on the structural decisions made during the design and set-up of the truss and support towers. Given the unique circumstances involved in outdoor events under portable canopies, there may be a clear need for ETCP to develop a third category of rigging certification that specifically addresses this segment of the entertainment industry.

JOL: There has to be blowbacks for this. Can you explain to a reader who doesn’t really understand what is going to now, what needs to happen because of this disaster? What ramifications will there be for this?

EF: With so many of these accidents happening recently, I would hope that the insurance carriers would begin to demand that a more robust system of structures, weather monitoring, fast track decision making authority, and crowd management planning be implemented. The structures that are used for these events certainly require closer scrutiny, as the covers for them act like huge sails in the wind and drag these canopies over too easily. This is an international problem, so to be effective, an international consortium of manufacturersâ€™ designers, safety experts, meteorologists, and building code officials will have to â€˜get on the same pageâ€™ so they can develop acceptable standards for the consideration of weather conditions. They will also have to develop clear criteria about when to â€˜call a showâ€™ and evacuate the venue. Apparently â€˜common senseâ€™ isnâ€™t enough.

JOL: This is obviously not directly related to medium sized rigs like the one in Indiana – the U2 tower collapse, the Madonna collapse, obviously back in the day the monster Justin Timberlake/Christina Aguillera concert collapse in New Jersey come to mind as well as several others. Do you see this as impacting a certain size of production where safety is somehow lax or just non-existent? Make all of this make sense to me, I’ve never been on a show where anything drastic like this has happened. Is this the sheer force of nature, or something a little more deliberate?

EF: The Modonna tour stage canopy collapse and the Justin Timberlake/Christina Aguillera truss collapse were different than the weather related failures in that they were the outcome of equipment failures and failure to closely monitor rigging loads. Denial isnâ€™t just a river in Egypt. The weather related collapses are strongly influenced by humans being in denial that the weather can bulldoze a stage structure in just seconds. Although there was only 10 minutes between the National Weather Service (NWS) issuance of a Severe Weather Warning and the collapse of the stage in Indiana, the weather front that triggered this warning was clearly visible and tracked for hours, if not days, in advance. When there are hundreds of thousands of pounds of equipment in the air over a stage, the potential for damage inside the â€˜crash radiusâ€™ of the structure is significant. The structure must be assembled to minimize the surface area that the wind can blow upon (break-away canopy tarps, vent flaps, etc.) and the structure must be secured to withstand the forces expected to be imposed upon it under severe weather conditions. A proper weather emergency plan would have included the precaution of lowering the canopy to stage level, too, so that the wind could not exert forces near the top of the structure.

The shear force of nature is significant and should NEVER be underestimated. As mother nature would say (after sheâ€™s knocked back a few) â€œDonâ€™t %$#@ with Mother Nature!â€ You canâ€™t win. HUGE forces are involved. The key is that we KNOW this, therefore we can expect this. All the quotations you read and hear on the news after these tragedies that say â€œIt just came out of nowhereâ€, â€œWe just didnâ€™t see it comingâ€, â€œWe didnâ€™t think it would get this badâ€, or Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels saying â€œIâ€™m not clear how anyone could have foreseen a sudden, highly localized blast of windâ€ are unbelievably ill thought-out statements. We have the technology to monitor wind and weather in real-time, we know how fast it is travelling, which way it is going, and where it is. What it takes is someone in a position of authority with enough common sense and large enough â€˜nads to call the show and clear the venue will a sufficient margin of error to ensure that no one is put in harmâ€™s way. The outdoor concert industry needs a serious reality check if they think that these accidents can be marked-up to voodoo weather or â€˜freakâ€™ occurrences. There was absolutely nothing about this that was unpredictable or unforeseeable. Like with most things, the body count has to get high enough to be noticed.

JOL: Â Thanks a lot, dude. Â This is a really bad situation from all angles. Â This is bad, very bad.

One begins to wonder when you work in this industry AND see something like this go down AND people lose their lives. Â I worked in a place once where a supervisor said to me – “we’ll get it fixed, but I think the funding will only arrive once someone falls out of the ceiling to show them it’s dangerous.” Â That kind of attitude makes me want to punch someone right in the mouth. Â What really sucks is that it’s probably closer to the truth than not. Â I think that there should be some serious ramifications to this horrific situation with respect to jail time and reprimand of a serious degree.

If you’ve not been following the news and you’re in the industry, well, that’s why I’m here, to help you with that. Â The frequency of these roof or stage collapses over the summer has not been ZERO where it should be; in fact, this makes THREE in the last three weeks. Â That is wholly unacceptable. Â This time, the little bit of comfort that these roof structures provide cost five people their lives, not to mention the trauma it doled out for others not killed in the collapse. Â I spoke with Scott Blair about this too – Scott used to work for High End Systems as the Director of Digital Light Development before BARCO decided otherwise. Â Scott’s also behind PlugFest, and does a ton fo work with Remote Device Management development. Â Scott’s a pretty vocal guy like I am, and he and I get along well in part due to that fact!

JimOnLight.com: Scott, what happened in Indianapolis? Don’t people follow the ANSI regulations with this kind of a scenario when people’s lives are at risk? There were several tens of thousands of pounds of gear hanging from that roof structure, where are the checks and balances?

Scott Blair: First off, let me state that I’m not an expert in rigging and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night either (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm-h7YR_410). Most of my life has been spent on the Lighting side of the industry and in developing ANSI standards for control protocols. I spent a lot of my early formative years working on a Summer outdoor production in an area known for sudden and unpredictable wind and weather (and poor planning) which is where I gained a strong appreciation for what mother nature can dish out! With the disclaimers out of the way, what people need to realize is that while there are ANSI Standards for construction and use of portable stages developed by ESTA (now PLASA), but these are *voluntary* standards. There is no REQUIRMENT that anyone follow them and I see that as a serious issue. Reputable manufacturer’s (such as the one for this structure) are likely going to follow the standards out of good practice and common sense. Engineers from many of these manufacturer’s are typically the ones involved in writing them. There is a big disconnect when it comes to the guys out in the field erecting and using these stages though. The same goes for using ETCP certified riggers. Some venues may require them, but there are no government regulations I’m aware of anywhere that require this. One point I raised a couple years ago on this when discussing another one of these failures and what can be done to change the safety climate is that the Insurance carriers for all these outdoor stages and productions should be requiring that the standards are followed and certified riggers are used, in addition to requiring a Professional Engineer sign-off each time the stage is erected and failure to do so would void the insurance. In the absence of cohesive government regulations, the Insurance companies are in the best position to require and enforce the checks and balances occur. At the end of the day it is about the money with everyone, so the Insurance companies have a lot of pull. With the increasing number of failures in recent years, I hope that is something that may already be happening out there. Frankly, carnival rides get more scrutiny for safety than these large stages do and that is something that MUST change!

JOL: There are myriad issues with this entire horrific event that just need to be made outwardly obvious. Besides the obvious factor of an approaching major weather event, can you tell me what the most significant factors that could have been mitigated?

SB: There are lots! We’ve been discussing this a lot over at LightNetwork in the last 24 hours and sadly it took us as an industry stacking up bodies before people really take notice. Outdoor stage failures have become so commonplace in recent years that there isn’t even much reaction to them other than “Oh look, another one.” I said over 2 years ago it was only a matter of time before people started getting killed from these. Frankly, we’ve had an incredible run of luck that it took this long even though there were a lot of close calls. That is the FIRST thing that should have been noticed and mitigated! With the frequency of failures, no one thought it could happen to them and they’ve kept building these things bigger and adding more weight and more sails to them. Rather than being more cautious, it appears that the limits keep getting pushed farther! Everyone is trying to do their full arena show on an outdoor portable stage!

The SECOND and one of the most troublesome practices for me is the use of these tarp roofs and backdrops and side wind-walls. These all act as huge sails and exert ENORMOUS forces on a rig, particularly lateral forces where structures are the MOST vulnerable and where there is the most variability in terms of how the stage is erected with guy wires, ballast, and cross bracing to reduce them. Some of these roofs are designed for people to release them in high winds (i.e. cut away) and lots of speculation about how that could be made better and if the roof was cut loose sooner than this might not have happened. I see that discussion in the same vein as saying, ‘if the Titanic only had more buckets to bail water they would have been fine!’ I see all the tarp roofs and backdrops as serious safety factors. Even if in high winds you do manage to cut the roof tarp away before it brings the stage down, there is a serious amount of mass that and size that is now airborne and can likely kill or do serious harm wherever it lands! There are a lot people that believe cutting slits in the backdrops ‘allows the air to pass through.’ Yes, in very small quantities. A sail with holes in it is still a sail! I once worked with large 2 story store front set pieces that were constructed out of screen door material and scenic painted. Since it was fine mesh screen material the wind should just pass through them right? Wrong, these things made fantastic sails and more than one night the entire crew was trying to stop these things from blowing away.

Hanging PA also must stop. These things are enormously heavy, catch a lot of wind, and if not tied down will create a very nasty swinging wrecking ball. They also frequently prevent the roof from being lowered in bad weather, something that is a necessity.

The THIRD biggest issue appears to have been management. It is clear there was a serious lack of communication and decision making occurring there. The one thing I hear over and over in our industry is that people are too afraid to be the one that “cancelled the show” or being seen as crying wolf. Or even if they do try to make the call they are overruled by the Promoters. I sleep a lot better being unemployed or being disliked than I do being responsible for manslaughter. That’s what this is. It was not a freakish unforeseen weather event, it was a large storm line with hours of warning preceding it and no action taken to 1. actually evacuate people nearby, 2. lower the stage. 3. cut the roof free (at least not until way too late) or 4. even call the Spot Op’s down from the roof that should never have been up there to begin with! I don’t know how else to describe this gross negligence than being manslaughter. Besides being a well formed evacuation and weather plan for any outdoor event, there needs to be someone in charge that is fully empowered to overrule the money interests (Promoters/Band) and pull the plug. Furthermore, they need to be held legally responsible for doing that! So that the failure not to act has legal liability attached to it! When it is their ass on the line they won’t be as quick to defer to the Promoter or other money interests and they will be doing what is safest.

JOL: Why is it, do you think, that a decision to evacuate was made so late in the process? That is one thing that I just cannot quite wrap my head around – with a rig that large on a standing superstructure roof (and a BIG roof at that) and with such a front approaching that there were stagehands inside the roof structure at all? Why did they wait so long?

SB: No one wants to be the one to cancel the show (and also be responsible for refunding the money!) The natural reaction is to wait just a -little- bit longer to see if maybe it won’t be that bad. There was a wealth of information staring them in the face not the least of which is weather alerts of the National Weather Service of a severe storm line baring down on them. (See www.controlgeek.net for the weather analysis). Anyone who watches a thunderstorm roll-in knows that just because it is fairly calm right now doesn’t mean that in less than 5 minutes you won’t be getting the crap beat out of you by the winds and rain! I’ve seen several reports that the authorities made the decision to cancel but a minute or two later an announcer said they hoped to continue the show shortly. They were alerted where to go if an evacuation was called, but it was never called. The people who were cited in being responsible for making the call, which was the Emergency Personnel and the Fair Manager, would likely have had very little understanding about the very real dangers that stage posed. What has been noticeably missing are any reports from those who should have known how vulnerable that stage was with the unnecessary amount of gak hanging on it for that show. The official timeline which has just been released is sickening in the amount of clear and present danger that storm posed and the length of time they knew it. http://media2.wane.com/_local/site/PDFs/News/State%20Fair%20Incident%20Time%20Line.pdf Someone with the Production or staging company should have made the call themselves, at least to their own Spot Ops. The investigation around that aspect is going to be very interesting.

JOL: Where do you feel the blame lies at this point, legally? I guess the part B for that question is where to place the blame – is this a human error, where and with whom does it lie, and how do we go about making sure that these kinds of horrific occurrences stop happening?

SB: That is a tough call. I personally wouldn’t feel bad if there was jail time for someone for this (not a long time, but some..) There were so many irresponsible things I can point to, and that is just from the sidelines, when testimony starts coming out about the chaos and the finger pointing it will get very difficult to tell. I don’t believe it was equipment failure. I say that in the sense that I’m certain it will come out that the system lasted well beyond it’s design constraints. Personally, I believe the design constraints our industry accepts with regards to wind is too low! You didn’t see any of the carnival rides at that fair toppling over! Our industry accepts far too low of a wind rating, these things need to be much more durable and not have the limits pushed the way they are constantly. My prediction is that there will be fault found with the amount and types of load present in that roof and that there were probably was improper erection with ballast and guy wires and such. The fact the roof covering didnâ€™t fully release and how long it took to start releasing will likely be a focal point as well. Â However, I believe there is a lot of blame to go around with the management and technical personnel responsible for that stage in terms of not cancelling the show and recognizing the severity of danger.

How to stop them? Here’s my view on what needs to happen:

There are stronger, certainly more conservative standards in place for outdoor stages, with a wide safety margin and full respect for the volatility of the weather. These standards MUST be mandatory and not voluntary as they are now with the ESTA/PLASA standards.

Restrictions against use of backdrops, roofs, hanging PA. The rig must be required to be able to lower immediately at any time.

There needs to be a SEPARATE Outdoor Rigging ETCP certification that is mandatory. I don’t believe the nature of the Arena and Theatre rigging certifications are likely adequate to prepare for what to expect outdoors.

There needs to be Engineering analysis/certification each time a rig is put up that deals with the specifics of the rig being used, the soil/environment it is being used in, the weather conditions that may occur, etc…

There needs to be a clear safety/evacuation plan including the details of thresholds where decisions are automatic and not discretionary, i.e. sustained wind speeds/gusts, weather forecasts, pending severe weather watches/warnings.

There needs to be someone designated that bears the full weight and responsibility for stopping the show. This means they not only have the full authority to suspend/cancel a show which overrules band/promoter management, but also the legal responsibility to do so. In other words, their ass is legally on the line if they fail to act.

I don’t believe without these serious steps being taken we will see anything more than the status quo out there. This creates an equal and safer playing field for all and reduces the “if I don’t give in then someone else will do it anyway or do it cheaper” mentality that too many of these staging companies fall into.

There’s still a possibility of further fatalities, State Police 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said.

In the conference that began at about 10 a.m. at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Gov. Mitch Daniels was joined by State Fair Director Cindy Hoye and Bursten.

Gov. Daniels was choked up as he began talking about emergency response.Â

“What you saw last night was a display of best qualities, both public and private, of Hoosiers,” Daniels said.

Bursten updated previous injury numbers that 45 people were taken to the hospital last night. He said the early indication is it was an “isolated significant wind gust” and the midway and other areas on the ground weren’t damaged as severely.Â Â

JimOnLight.com sends out its deepest sympathy to the victims, both dead and surviving, of this horrible accident.

I drove back from Arlington, Texas last night. Â Long story short, I left around 8pm last night, and I spent the entire three hour drive just completelyÂ enamoredÂ with the sky lighting up with huge bolts of lightning. Â I remembered seeing the Trinity test video, and so many other night-based explosions in movies; the sky last night reminded me of that type of phenomenon. Â So many bolts of lightning piercing the darkness, it was just like watching that scene in the newest Harry Potter when all of the folks are casting the spells over the school campus. Â Overwhelming; beautiful.

(Sorry folks, I’m not a Harry Potter person, I just saw the one…)

I got home and made this video, since I was blessed AGAIN with the lack of tiredness in my body after that drive. Â I took about a half hour’s worth of lightning strikes in downtown and condensed them down to about two minutes. Â I hope you enjoy! Â I’m a great big goofball, just be forewarned.

For the first time in my life, I live in an apartment tower. Â I’ve lived in apartments before, of course, but never anywhere that had floors above the second or third floor. Â I’m on the thirteenth floor, with an amazing view of downtown Oklahoma City.

I have found a new kind of peace with this kind of view – when I make it home early enough that the sun is still up, it is amazing to watch the city get ready for the night time by turning on architectural illumination. Â The city has a soul, and you see it at night when it is shining.

Another amazing sight at this vantage is storms. Â Oh holy crap do I love storms and lightning – and Oklahoma City is right in that tornado-y, ass-kicking thunderstorms and hail alley of the country. Â A few weeks ago we had a string of days that had afternoon thunderstorms – and I had my camera on the tripod!

Check these out – I hope it is a good start to your morning!

and I kid you not, when this wave was over, the freaking sun popped out, and BOOM – DOUBLE RAINBOW.

http://i0.wp.com/www.jimonlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/lightning-sept-2010-2.jpg?fit=650%2C433&ssl=1433650Jimhttp://www.jimonlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/jol-color-logo.pngJim2010-10-07 07:07:352011-05-10 16:31:45Lightning in Oklahoma City - from the JimOnLight.com World HQ